If you’ve already got a blender, stand mixer, or juicer, you may feel like you’re all set for prepping for meals, but—as the best chefs will agree—no kitchen should be without a decent food processor. The perfect multitasking tool for slicing, dicing, chopping, and more, with a good food processor you’ll always feel like you’ve got an extra pair of hands helping you in the kitchen.
The latest appliances can chop, shred, slice, grind, grate, dice, knead, and puree at the touch of a button. A food processor is particularly good for shredding vegetables to spice up salads and for smoothing homemade sauces such as pesto or hummus. You can also use it to puree ingredients for whatever stage you’re at in life—be it for weaning a 6-month-old baby or making champagne Bellinis for a Friday night.
In our pick, we’ve included a range of tall and small designs to suit both large and petite kitchen cupboards. To assess the performance of each food processor, we used them to prepare hummus with chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, tahini, and sea salt. We also used them to chop carrots evenly to hide in Jamie Oliver’s Versatile Meat Ragu recipe, which is delicious in pies or served with pasta and rice. We’ve also rated each food processor on versatility, design, and how many useful attachments the set includes.
For more of WIRED’s kitchen guides, check out our Best Stand Mixers, Best Blenders, Best Air Fryers, Best Electric Kettles, and the Best Gear for Small Kitchens.
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